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THAT Day’s Here, Again…..

By February 29, 2012August 30th, 2022Lost in Translation

I always wanted to be born on February 29th. I just think it is the greatest birthday out the there. But my mother missed it by 10 days. I was born on the 19th. And I think that it was Maxwell Smart, from the TV program Get Smart back in the sixties, who said, “Missed it by that much!” But, facts are facts, and there are relatively few people born on this day. In fact, the odds are only one in 1461 that you will be born on a Feb. 29th. And depending on how you figure it, some experts compute the odds at even less than that – one in 1506.

I used to think about when I would celebrate my birthday on the off years and I decided that I would rather celebrate on Feb. 28th because it is in the same month. And of all the months in the year, I like the fact that I was born in February, the shortest month of the year, and the month in which both Presidents Washington and Lincoln were born. It’s kind of like being left-handed, which I am; unusual, but certainly not otherwise noteworthy. Just kind of something to discuss when it is convenient.

I don’t think I even know anyone who was born on the 29th. But that doesn’t change how I wished that I had been born on this date and I have done quite a bit of reading on the subject. I would have thought that everyone would have liked a birthday on Feb. 29th, but that’s not the case. I have heard more than my fair share of people who have talked about how they grew up in very conservative homes where they were not allowed to celebrate except once every four years. That seems to be a little excessive to me, but then again, I guess there are some real purists out there. Others talk about how their families rallied around them and helped them choose what day to celebrate.

But one of the things I never really thought about is all trouble associated with being born on this date. For example, people who have to input their birthday as 2/29 have real computer issues with most programs. The computers do not recognize the date and this makes it impossible to log on for many applications. You would think that programmers would have thought of this, but I suppose there always glitches of one type or another in computer applications. Many of the things that the rest of us do as a matter of course are far more difficult for those who only celebrate every 4 years.

Anyway, the point of this post is that I had to write it today – or wait another 1461 days to do it then. And who knows if TBTB will still be around in another 4 years! But the thing that this day has in common with every other day is that it was created by God. And that makes it special – very special. Because God created it to be special.

You might find it interesting to know that Julius Caesar had quite a bit to do with the ordering of the calendar and replaced an extra month with added days for some of the remaining 12 months. One of those, of course, was the month named for Caesar, July….. Eventually, the calendar was refined and now, after corrections dating back to 1582 with Pope Gregory XIII, who recognized that Easter would get closer and closer to Christmas without further modification, leap years were instituted every 4 years, and years divisible by 100 were skipped unless they could also be divided by 400. Therefore, 1600 and 2000 were leap years. Now, the Gregorian calendar, as it is called, is actually 365.2425 days which means that we are only off 1 day every 4000 years – not too shabby.

But God’s day is perfect. We generally think of the day beginning at dawn and ending in the evening, but this is not the way that God planned it. The ancient Jewish culture believed that the day started when the third star was visible at night. And that God only provided us enough faith for one day at a time – so we would stay dependent on Him. So which is the right way to look at our days? God’s way, of course. And to find out what He said, all we have to do is go back to Genesis and the creation of the universe as we know it.

So the verse for tonight is from the beginning of the Bible, Genesis 1:5, “God called the light “day,” and the darkness he called “night.” And there was evening, and there was morning—the first day.” Notice that God created night before He created day. My encouragement this evening is that you celebrate each day – whether it is Feb. 29th or not… And my prayer is that God will continue to grant you faith, one day at a time, every day of your life. And by the way, on a side note, if you need a little extra boost of faith, pray for it. God answers prayer and faith is a gift from God. Have a great day in the Lord…

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